Starring Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal, Francella Guillermo
Directed by Carlos Cuarón

★★★★

It’s been a relatively long and steadily successful career road for Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. Having made their arrival firmly known in Alfonso Cuarón’s excellent Y tu mama tambien in 2004, they have individually made their names known, starring in a number of well received films at home in Mexico as well as some very successful Hollywood productions; Luna co starred with Tom Hanks in Stephen Spielberg’s The Terminal and last year he played a substantial role opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant’s Oscar winning Milk. Garcia Bernal received notable interest after playing Che Guevara – for the second time – in the acclaimed Motorcycle Diaries. Since then He has starred in Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep as well as Alejandro González Iñárritu’s multi Oscar nominated Babel.

Now, five years on, they not only pair up for the first time since their initial smash, but also work again with one half of that film’s writing duo, and in a production markedly similar in style. Carlos Cuarón, who co-wrote Y tu mama tambien with his brother Alfonso, has this time taken on sole writing and directing duties, making a superb and equally fresh film in the process.

We are again offered delightfully skewed takes on contemporary Mexican society whilst also, more crucially, reminded of just how wonderfully Luna and Bernal play off each other; telling evidence that this reunion could not have come a moment too soon.

Rudo & Cursi is the story of two brothers with small town lives and big dreams. They spend their days harvesting bananas in the sweltering sun and their night’s drinking and gambling into the early hours.

It’s all about Saturday afternoons however, when they both play for the local football team; Rudo, a promising goal keeper, longs to make a name for himself in the game while Cursi, despite being an equally promising striker, is a bit too much of a showman. His real ambition is to be a successful singer and he believes he will make it to the United States where this will happen for him.

A chance encounter with a flashy stranger, whose car has broken down outside the town, proves to be more than it seems when he turns out to be a freelance football scout for a number of the big clubs in Mexico City. He’s impressed by the boys’ natural skill and all of a sudden, they have a chance to escape their rural humdrum lives for the glare of the big city and the allure of the soccer star lifestyle.

While the plot might seem like something you feel you’ve seen a number of times before, be assured that this is not the case; Cuarón eschews the familiar aspects of the moral sports tale, skilfully removing the clichés. The characters are also very well conceived and the seamless screenplay rests comfortably with the two stars, nurturing their obvious adlibbing ability.

Whilst the testy chalk and cheese relationship between the brothers is the backbone of the film, the weight of the narrative is carried with ease thanks to a terrific supporting cast; Francella is perfectly dubious as the sports agent in it for whatever he can get, and model Jessica Mas is disgustingly materialistic as the TV presenter come wannabe football ‘WAG’. As for the family, they are suitably dysfunctional and don’t exactly instil you with hope for the boys as they begin to swim out of their depth.

Rudo & Cursi is a highly entertaining morality tale with the firmest of tongues in its cheek, and it offers just the right measures of belly laughs, frustration and heartfelt empathy. Garcia Bernal and Luna have probably already guaranteed themselves a DVD box set of their two co-works. It would be nice if they could score the hat trick.